DALLAS – Many American women have received the decline in abortion rights with a sense of shock and fear, and with warnings about a disastrous decline in the status of women as full citizens.
But for some women, the decision meant something different: a triumph of human rights, not an impediment to women’s rights.
“I just reject the idea that as a woman I need abortion to be successful or to be as prosperous as a man in my career,” said Phoebe Purvey, a 26-year-old Texan. “I don’t think I have to sacrifice a life to do that.”
The Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade was a political victory, achieved by lobbyists, strategists and campaign professionals over decades. But it was also a cultural battle, waged by activists across the country, including those belonging to the exact demographics that abortion rights advocates warn they have more to lose in the new American landscape: women teens.
Often pointed to by anti-abortion leaders as the face of the movement, a new generation of activists says it is ready to continue the struggle in a post-Roe nation.
Many, but not all, are conservative Christians, the demographic group that has long formed the core of the anti-abortion movement. Others are secular and see their efforts against abortion as part of a progressive pursuit of human rights. They have all grown up with unthinkable access to images of the inside of the uterus, which has helped them convince that a fetus is a complete human being long before it is viable.
Many believe that the procedure should be banned from conception, that even the earliest abortion is indeed a murder. But they accept the general view against abortion that women are victims of the abortion “industry” and should not be prosecuted, putting them at odds with the growing “abolitionist” wing of the movement that demands that women women are legally responsible for their abortions. .
And overwhelmingly, these young women reject the idea that access to abortion is necessary for their own success, or that of any woman.
Ms Purvey said she supported the legal ban on abortion from conception. But she is increasingly uncomfortable with using the term “pro-life” to describe herself, because it evokes an emphasis on preventing abortion at all costs, rather than helping women. She prefers to “affirm life” and works at a pregnancy resource clinic in Dallas that uses the same term to describe free, low-cost prenatal care, postpartum doula services, breastfeeding counseling, and other services. which are mainly offered to their blacks. low-income clientele.
Mrs. Purvey was born in a Mexican community in South Texas. Her mother was poor and had an unstable marriage, she said, and received prenatal care from Planned Parenthood. Later, the family received financial and emotional support from their church, which inspired Ms. Purvey to offer help to women like her mother. “At this point in my life, I have the rights of children and women taken equally, but I consider myself a little more in women and focused on women,” she said. “That’s where much of the change happens.”
A clear majority of Americans say abortion should be legal with few or no exceptions, according to a Pew poll conducted in March. Women aged 18 to 29 are much more likely than older women to say that abortion should be generally legal and that it is morally acceptable. Only 21 percent of young women say abortion should be generally illegal, Pew found.
De Opinion: The End of Roe v. Wade
Commentary by Times Opinion writers and columnists on the Supreme Court’s decision to end the constitutional right to abortion.
- Michelle Goldberg: “The end of Roe v. Wade was predicted, but in large parts of the country, it has still created groundbreaking and potentially tragic uncertainties.”
- Spencer Bokat-Lindell: “What exactly does it mean for the Supreme Court to experience a crisis of legitimacy, and is it really in one?”
- Bonnie Kristian, journalist: “For many supporters of former President Donald Trump, Friday’s Supreme Court decision was a long-awaited claim.” It could also mark the end of his political career.
- Erika Bachiochi, a legal expert: “It is precisely the state of existential dependence on the mother’s fetus, not her autonomy, that makes her especially entitled to care, food and legal protection.”
The minority status of the movement is part of its appeal, said historian Daniel K. Williams, who has written about the history of the defense against abortion.
“The pro-life movement so far has had the best of both worlds in terms of attracting young people,” Mr. Williams. It positions itself as a countercultural alternative to conventional wisdom, but also defends the generally popular beliefs about the importance of justice and equality for the vulnerable. Historical touchstones, common within the movement and hotly contested outside of it, include the civil rights movement and suffragettes of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
For most American women who support abortion rights, the enthusiasm of other women to strip their own constitutional rights can be baffling and infuriating, a deep betrayal. But overwhelmingly, young women against abortion see themselves as human rights activists: happy warriors on the right side of history.
“It’s always been a youth movement,” said Kristan Hawkins, who became president of Students for Life of America in 2006, when she was 21 years old. He remembered a phrase he heard from conservative activist Alveda King, a niece of Martin Luther. King Jr., who is a frequent presence at anti-abortion events: “When young people join your movement, you know victory is on the way.”
Ms. Hawkins’ organization, which supports an almost total ban on abortion from conception and opposes oral contraceptives, now calls for 1,250 groups on campuses across the country, from middle schools to in graduate schools. Their signs that say “I am the pro-life generation” are ubiquitous in anti-abortion demonstrations.
Ms. Hawkins says the contemporary anti-abortion movement offers a more empowering view to young women than the feminism of abortion rights.
“This is 2022, not 1962,” she said, noting that women’s legal rights to do things such as secured loans have advanced dramatically since the era before Roe.
If feminism tells young women that they must be able to end their pregnancies to achieve their educational and professional goals, she said, the anti-abortion movement tells them they can have it all.
Young people have been part of the anti-abortion movement since the 1970s. The annual March for Life in Washington, held around the anniversary of the Roe v. Decision. Wade, now attracts buses of students from all over the country to what has been transformed over the years into a festive demonstration driven by young people.
Clare Fletcher, 26, a teacher at a Catholic school in Illinois, has attended the March for Life at least 10 times. She grew up in a strongly anti-abortion home, influenced by the understanding that the biological mother of her adopted little sister had had an abortion before giving birth.
The event, and the movement it represents, have always been “a source of joy and celebration of life, fun and community,” Ms. Fletcher.
As a teenager, his father drove a bus caravan from Louisiana that he described as strict road trips with matching hats, flash mobs, tourist stops, and silly songs. You can still sing from memory a parody against the abortion of Taio Cruz’s hit “Dynamite”: “Just wanna celebrate and be pro-life say ayo, gotta pray-o!”
When she was an active teenager online, Lauren Marlowe had a vague understanding that supporting abortion rights was what made people “kind”. But he was drawn to think differently in part because of advances in ultrasound imaging. “At the time, when they looked at the ultrasound and thought it was a group of cells, that was all they could see,” he said, referring to a phrase used by philosopher Judith Jarvis Thompson in a famous defense of the 1971 abortion.
Ms. Marlowe, 22, a social media coordinator for Students for Life of America, launched a small line of “pro-life fashion clothing” as a graduate student at Freedom University. The line features a T-shirt with the word “pro-life” written in the font “Friends” and a sweatshirt with the cheeky slogan “Just a group of cells”.
In Tennessee, 28-year-old Kailey Cornett said she anticipated that her job as executive director of Hope Clinic for Women, a “life-affirming” center that provides services and support to pregnant women, would increase her activity in a landscape after Roe. Tennessee has an active law that is expected to go into effect in mid-August and will ban abortion in almost all cases, including rape and incest.
Mrs. Cornett received what she experienced as a vital call from God while attending a Christian youth convention as a teenager: “loving” young women facing unplanned pregnancies. She volunteered at a resource center for pregnancy in Arizona in high school and pursued a bachelor’s degree in nonprofit management with the goal of leading one.
Reading the book by progressive Christian writer Sarah Bessey’s “Jesus Feminist” showed her that her faith and care for women should not be strained. “Oh my God, I can be both of you,” he recalled. “It turns out I was a feminist all the time, but I had that wrong definition.”
Hers is one of the few resource centers on pregnancy that offers some forms of birth control to clients. Although the clinic is not engaged in politics, it is in favor of the state’s upcoming abortion ban, including its lack of exceptions for rape and incest.
“I am firmly convinced that trauma leads to trauma,” he said. A woman “who ends this child’s life will not make her pain go away.”
On Thursday, Nashville police said they were investigating an attempted arson at the Hope Clinic, part of a vandalism eruption …